Effects of Healthy Aging and Gender on the Electrophysiological Correlates of Semantic Sentence Comprehension: The Development of Dutch Normative Data.

PURPOSE The clinical use of event-related potentials in patients with language disorders is increasingly acknowledged. For this purpose, normative data should be available. Within this context, healthy aging and gender effects on the electrophysiological correlates of semantic sentence comprehension were investigated. METHOD One hundred and ten healthy subjects (55 men and 55 women), divided among three age groups (young, middle aged, and elderly), performed a semantic sentence congruity task in the visual modality during electroencephalographic recording. RESULTS The early visual complex was affected by increasing age as shown by smaller P2 amplitudes in the elderly compared to the young. Moreover, the N400 effect in the elderly was smaller than in the young and was delayed compared to latency measures in both middle-aged and young subjects. The topography of age-related amplitude changes of the N400 effect appeared to be gender specific. The late positive complex effect was increased at frontal electrode sites from middle age on, but this was not statistically significant. No gender effects were detected regarding the early P1, N1, and P2, or the late positive complex effect. CONCLUSION Especially aging effects were found during semantic sentence comprehension, and this from the level of perceptual processing on. Normative data are now available for clinical use.

[1]  W. Duyck,et al.  Therapy-Induced Electrophysiological Changes in Primary Progressive Aphasia: A Preliminary Study , 2022, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

[2]  S. Purdy,et al.  The electrophysiology of aphasia: A scoping review , 2021, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[3]  M. Miatton,et al.  A case series of verbal semantic processing in primary progressive aphasia: Evidence from the N400 effect. , 2021, International journal of language & communication disorders.

[4]  W. Duyck,et al.  Age- and gender-related differences in verbal semantic processing: the development of normative electrophysiological data in the Flemish population , 2021, Language, Cognition and Neuroscience.

[5]  J. Silkes,et al.  The role and use of event-related potentials in aphasia: A scoping review , 2021, Brain and Language.

[6]  C. Bouchard,et al.  Semantic Processing in Healthy Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease: A Systematic Review of the N400 Differences , 2020, Brain sciences.

[7]  W. Duyck,et al.  The phonological Mismatch Negativity and P300 as diagnostic tools in stroke-related aphasia recovery: a longitudinal multiple case study , 2020, Aphasiology.

[8]  P. Santens,et al.  The sensitivity of event-related potentials/fields to logopedic interventions in patients with stroke-related aphasia , 2020, Acta Neurologica Belgica.

[9]  Sean McWeeny,et al.  Understanding event-related potentials (ERPs) in clinical and basic language and communication disorders research: a tutorial. , 2020, International journal of language & communication disorders.

[10]  Knut K. Kolskår,et al.  Greater male than female variability in regional brain structure across the lifespan , 2020, bioRxiv.

[11]  Zude Zhu,et al.  Semantic integration declines independently of working memory in aging , 2019, Applied Psycholinguistics.

[12]  L. Jäncke,et al.  Brain structure and cognitive ability in healthy aging: a review on longitudinal correlated change , 2019, Reviews in the neurosciences.

[13]  Mante S. Nieuwland,et al.  Do ‘early’ brain responses reveal word form prediction during language comprehension? A critical review , 2019, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.

[14]  Zude Zhu,et al.  Reduced Syntactic Processing Efficiency in Older Adults During Sentence Comprehension , 2018, Front. Psychol..

[15]  L. Leach,et al.  A re‐examination of Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) cutoff scores , 2018, International journal of geriatric psychiatry.

[16]  P. Hoffman,et al.  Age-related changes in the neural networks supporting semantic cognition: A meta-analysis of 47 functional neuroimaging studies , 2017, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.

[17]  Zude Zhu,et al.  Age-related temporal-spatial dynamic ERP changes during sentence comprehension , 2017, Neuroscience Letters.

[18]  J. Fuh,et al.  Predictability effect on N400 reflects the severity of reading comprehension deficits in aphasia , 2016, Neuropsychologia.

[19]  Xing-shi Chen,et al.  Follow-up of N400 in the Rehabilitation of First-episode Schizophrenia , 2015, Chinese medical journal.

[20]  Andreas Kastrup,et al.  The P300 in middle cerebral artery strokes or hemorrhages: Outcome predictions and source localization , 2015, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[21]  R. Hartsuiker,et al.  Sex Differences in Neurophysiological Activation Patterns During Phonological Input Processing: An Influencing Factor for Normative Data , 2015, Archives of sexual behavior.

[22]  Denise C. Park,et al.  How Does it STAC Up? Revisiting the Scaffolding Theory of Aging and Cognition , 2014, Neuropsychology Review.

[23]  Michaël A. Stevens,et al.  Norms of age of acquisition and concreteness for 30,000 Dutch words. , 2014, Acta psychologica.

[24]  W. Fias,et al.  Response-Related Potentials during Semantic Priming: The Effect of a Speeded Button Response Task on ERPs , 2014, PloS one.

[25]  Martin Luessi,et al.  MEG and EEG data analysis with MNE-Python , 2013, Front. Neuroinform..

[26]  Heikki Lyytinen,et al.  An Electrophysiological Study of Print Processing in Kindergarten: The Contribution of the Visual N1 as a Predictor of Reading Outcome , 2013, Developmental neuropsychology.

[27]  R. Hartsuiker,et al.  Neurophysiological investigation of phonological input: Aging effects and development of normative data , 2013, Brain and Language.

[28]  M. Brysbaert,et al.  Norms of valence, arousal, dominance, and age of acquisition for 4,300 Dutch words , 2013, Behavior research methods.

[29]  V. Marian,et al.  CLEARPOND: Cross-Linguistic Easy-Access Resource for Phonological and Orthographic Neighborhood Densities , 2012, PloS one.

[30]  C. Grady.  The cognitive neuroscience of ageing , 2012, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[31]  Kara D. Federmeier,et al.  Age-related changes in the impact of contextual strength on multiple aspects of sentence comprehension. , 2012, Psychophysiology.

[32]  Hartmut Fitz,et al.  Getting real about Semantic Illusions: Rethinking the functional role of the P600 in language comprehension , 2012, Brain Research.

[33]  C. Van Petten,et al.  Prediction during language comprehension: benefits, costs, and ERP components. , 2012, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[34]  Q. Gong,et al.  Semantic Processing Disturbance in Patients with Schizophrenia: A Meta-Analysis of the N400 Component , 2011, PloS one.

[35]  Simon Finnigan,et al.  ERP measures indicate both attention and working memory encoding decrements in aging. , 2011, Psychophysiology.

[36]  Marcel Bastiaansen,et al.  The influence of information structure on the depth of semantic processing: How focus and pitch accent determine the size of the N400 effect , 2011, Neuropsychologia.

[37]  Kara D. Federmeier,et al.  Age-related and individual differences in the use of prediction during language comprehension , 2010, Brain and Language.

[38]  H. Buchner,et al.  Semantic Event-Related Potential Components Reflect Severity of Comprehension Deficits in Aphasia , 2010, Neurorehabilitation and neural repair.

[39]  C. C. Duncan,et al.  Event-related potentials in clinical research: Guidelines for eliciting, recording, and quantifying mismatch negativity, P300, and N400 , 2009, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[40]  Mikkel Wallentin,et al.  Putative sex differences in verbal abilities and language cortex: A critical review , 2009, Brain and Language.

[41]  Ellen F. Lau,et al.  A cortical network for semantics: (de)constructing the N400 , 2008, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[42]  R. Cabeza,et al.  Que PASA? The posterior-anterior shift in aging. , 2008, Cerebral cortex.

[43]  C M Michel,et al.  Sex differences in semantic processing: event-related brain potentials distinguish between lower and higher order semantic analysis during word reading. , 2007, Cerebral cortex.

[44]  R. Woods,et al.  Sex differences in cortical thickness mapped in 176 healthy individuals between 7 and 87 years of age. , 2007, Cerebral cortex.

[45]  Gina R. Kuperberg,et al.  Neural mechanisms of language comprehension: Challenges to syntax , 2007, Brain Research.

[46]  Karen M. Evans,et al.  The memory that's right and the memory that's left: Event-related potentials reveal hemispheric asymmetries in the encoding and retention of verbal information , 2007, Neuropsychologia.

[47]  Jérôme Daltrozzo,et al.  Sex Differences in Two Event-Related Potentials Components Related to Semantic Priming , 2007, Archives of sexual behavior.

[48]  Catherine J. Stoodley,et al.  Auditory event-related potentials differ in dyslexics even when auditory psychophysical performance is normal , 2006, Brain Research.

[49]  Daniel Brandeis,et al.  Coarse neural tuning for print peaks when children learn to read , 2006, NeuroImage.

[50]  C. Petten,et al.  Neural localization of semantic context effects in electromagnetic and hemodynamic studies , 2006, Brain and Language.

[51]  Salvatore Giaquinto,et al.  The role of P300 in the recovery of post‐stroke global aphasia , 2006, European journal of neurology.

[52]  Cheryl L. Dahle,et al.  Regional brain changes in aging healthy adults: general trends, individual differences and modifiers. , 2005, Cerebral cortex.

[53]  Daniel Brandeis,et al.  Emerging Neurophysiological Specialization for Letter Strings , 2005, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[54]  Katherine A. DeLong,et al.  Probabilistic word pre-activation during language comprehension inferred from electrical brain activity , 2005, Nature Neuroscience.

[55]  Kara D. Federmeier,et al.  Both sides get the point: Hemispheric sensitivities to sentential constraint , 2005, Memory & cognition.

[56]  J. Cummings,et al.  The Montreal Cognitive Assessment, MoCA: A Brief Screening Tool For Mild Cognitive Impairment , 2005, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

[57]  Kara D. Federmeier,et al.  Aging in context: age-related changes in context use during language comprehension. , 2005, Psychophysiology.

[58]  F. Guillem,et al.  Gender differences in memory processing: Evidence from event-related potentials to faces , 2005, Brain and Cognition.

[59]  B. Desgranges,et al.  The hyperpriming phenomenon in normal aging: a consequence of cognitive slowing? , 2003, Neuropsychology.

[60]  P. Hagoort.  Interplay between Syntax and Semantics during Sentence Comprehension: ERP Effects of Combining Syntactic and Semantic Violations , 2003, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[61]  R. Cabeza.  Hemispheric asymmetry reduction in older adults: the HAROLD model. , 2002, Psychology and aging.

[62]  Blake W. Johnson,et al.  High-density mapping in an N400 paradigm: evidence for bilateral temporal lobe generators , 2000, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[63]  J. Pernier,et al.  ERP Manifestations of Processing Printed Words at Different Psycholinguistic Levels: Time Course and Scalp Distribution , 1999, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[64]  D P Salmon,et al.  Event-related brain potentials during semantic categorization in normal aging and senile dementia of the Alzheimer's type. , 1996, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[65]  E. Halgren,et al.  Spatio-temporal stages in face and word processing. 2. Depth-recorded potentials in the human frontal and Rolandic cortices , 1994, Journal of Physiology-Paris.

[66]  S. Luck,et al.  Electrophysiological correlates of feature analysis during visual search. , 1994, Psychophysiology.

[67]  S A Hillyard,et al.  Effects of aging on event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in a visual detection task. , 1994, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[68]  S. Andrews,et al.  Event-related potentials and repetition priming in young, middle-aged and elderly normal subjects. , 1993, Brain research. Cognitive brain research.

[69]  Van Strien,et al.  Classificatie van links- en rechtshandige proefpersonen. , 1992 .

[70]  Joan Meyers-Levy,et al.  Gender Differences in the Use of Message Cues and Judgments , 1991 .

[71]  M. Kutas,et al.  The lateral distribution of event-related potentials during sentence processing , 1982, Neuropsychologia.

[72]  Gina R. Kuperberg,et al.  A Tale of Two Positivities and the N400: Distinct Neural Signatures Are Evoked by Confirmed and Violated Predictions at Different Levels of Representation , 2020, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[73]  Gabor Stefanics,et al.  EEG and ERP biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease: a critical review. , 2018, Frontiers in bioscience.

[74]  Nicholas Gaspelin,et al.  How to get statistically significant effects in any ERP experiment (and why you shouldn't). , 2017, Psychophysiology.

[75]  Kara D. Federmeier,et al.  Thirty years and counting: finding meaning in the N400 component of the event-related brain potential (ERP). , 2011, Annual review of psychology.

[76]  Colin M. Brown,et al.  Spoken Sentence Comprehension in Aphasia: Event-related Potential Evidence for a Lexical Integration Deficit , 1997, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[77]  Peter Hagoort,et al.  The Processing Nature of the N400: Evidence from Masked Priming , 1993, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[78]  G Mulder,et al.  An electrophysiological study of semantic processing in young and middle-aged academics. , 1992, Psychophysiology.

[79]  C. Grady,et al.  Author's Personal Copy Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Author's Personal Copy , 2022 .